I notice there aren’t too many protestants to give their answer. Or the ones who do adress this question are in a separated Church from Rome, but still do believe there is a reality of Jesus’ body and blood in their communion. I guess it is understandable that not too many are using a site called catholic answers.
Code:
I grew up in a non-denominational church turned evangelical free. They would practice communion as symbolic. I think there are many reasons why they believe it, but none hold to real deep meaning or truth.
I have heard, like mentioned, the accusation that Roman Catholic Mass crucifies Jesusl over and over. This is a doctine of demons if I ever heard one! It uses fear to keep children (unstudied christians) from being obedient to one faith.
Also, I’ve heard accusations that it is cannibolism. Which again uses fear. We don’t think what is from heaven is the same as the rest of us. But I can see where this can be hard to expain.
In John’s account, Jesus says, “my words are spirit and life, flesh profits nothing” So this is also used to discredit literal interpretation. but this would mean He is asking us to eat bread that symbolizes His body, which symbolizes His Spirit. So that doesn’t add up.
And a big one we’ve all heard is, “We do this to remember Him and what he did.” As our good friend SteveVH has noted, this rememberence Jesus mentions is not the same as “to remember”. And eating a bread and little wine doesn’t help anyone remember Jesus if we aren’t considering Himself to be truly given in the Bread and Wine.
It aslo stems from a fear that man made a ritual out of a more simple notion. And rituals are like black magic or something. And you could say the same for Baptism and other Sacraments we hold where grace is transfered through matter. But they don’t have a problem with acknowledging a divine act of God joining a man and woman into one body in a ceremony of marriage.
In the end, I think it really depends on the individual as to their blameworthiness in denying the Catholic Sacrament. Leaders and pastors of these beliefs are more guilty. But those raised from childhood are just being obedient to their parents and teachers. Its a hard obsticle to overcome since some of them have good genuine faith!
God Bless,
Michael
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